Designing a summer program that balances fun, learning, and development is essential to providing kids with a well-rounded summer experience. You can create a summer program that helps kids develop life skills, grow academically, and have so much fun doing it that they won’t even notice they’re learning.
Get Hands-on and Build Life Skills
Incorporate opportunities to blend fun with learning by including hands-on activities like STEM projects, arts and crafts, and other experiential learning projects. Consider the resources your program has available. Is there a place to go on a bug hunt or start a garden? Can you incorporate science experiments or engineering challenges? Can you include a dose of art history into arts and crafts projects or take a virtual or in-person field trip to a local art museum? Mixing up activities like these will keep it interesting for kids without feeling like school.
You can also implement an enrichment curriculum that includes engaging activities like the ones above and that builds crucial life skills like leadership, self-awareness, decision-making, critical thinking, and relationship skills, all while kids have fun and with minimal prep for your staff. A pre-built enrichment curriculum takes the planning off your hands and delivers themes and activities that help children develop essential skills for their personal growth and success in life!
Prioritize Play and Physical Activity
Summer is a great time to burn off extra energy! Make sure kids are getting daily physical activity by including sports and games, outdoor adventures like hiking, and teaching fitness fundamentals. Here are some engaging physical activities to incorporate into your program:
- Set up an obstacle course
- Create a scavenger hunt
- Blob tag
- Yoga
- Freeze dance
- Capture the flag
Make physical activity a part of every day by blocking out a time for games and free play in your program schedule.
Incorporate Academics
If you’re looking to provide an academic boost to the kids in your program, consider implementing ELA and math instruction. An academic curriculum can help prevent summer learning loss and prepares kids for the upcoming school year. You can create your own, partner with a local school district for a coordinated curriculum, or find a flexible out of school time curriculum that fits your program. Whichever route you take, make sure the curriculum you implement is high-quality!
Maintain an Inclusive Environment
Kids can’t have fun and grow if they don’t feel welcome and supported. Design your program to be inclusive to ensure that you foster an environment where every child feels valued. From hiring staff that reflect the demographics of the youth you serve to offering staff training on culture and climate, maintaining an inclusive environment helps kids feel safe to take risks, develop positive relationships, and encourages participation. A positive culture and climate and inclusive environment help kids grow and benefit from your program! In fact, 83% of parents rank their child’s happiness as the most important indicator of a quality out of school time program.
How Arly Can Help
Arly is an all-in-one youth management platform that equips you with the tools and resources you need to plan and provide a top-notch program including:
- Arly Explorers, an engaging and fun enrichment curriculum that helps kids develop valuable life skills and influences positive program culture and climate.
- Management Tools and Resources to help you design and plan your summer program including sample schedules, weekly planning tools, budget templates, and more!
- Scholastic Summer Zone, a cost-effective literacy and math curriculum that supports summer learning and combines Scholastic’s leading instructional resources and Arly’s powerful solution
- And so much more!
Want to learn more? Request a demo today!
